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Thread: Whats Your Favourite War Novel?

  1. #1

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    Mines has got to be A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. Its set on the Italian Front of WW1. The war really just serves as a back drop for the main protagonists love affair and he is only an American who volunteered for the italian ambulance service but i think its truly great, definately one of the great WW1 novels. The novel is semi-autobiographical so the horro of the italian front is conveyed thorugh Hemingway's firsthand experience. He paints a picture of the war, so grim, that by the end of the book, the once glorious image of war now sickens you. This is the reason i love it so. It doesn't romantasize the war but paints the truth, like much post WW1 literature. :grin

    Would like to hear your favourites and opinions :rolleyes

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    No, that isn't a banana
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    Slaugherhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut

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    Mordhak's Avatar Civitate
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    The Lion of Flanders by Henry Conscience. The book dates from the 19th century and describes the Battle of the Golden Spores in 1302, where the Flemish army largely consisting of peasants defeated the glorious French army consisting of 20.000 knights, or something like that. It was the first battle in medieval history where mere infrantry beated the crap out of mounted knights, and it greatly influenced the changing of warfare tactics throughout the later medieval period.

  4. #4
    Libertus
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    The Winds of War, along with its sequel War and Remembrance. Cant remember author.
    "Its not about dieing for your country, It's about making the enemy die for theirs".

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    Centurion Quintus's Avatar Campidoctor
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    Hmm...Heretic is very good. One of the more thought provoking reads and at the same time, incredibly interesting.

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    Libertus
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    Has anyone ever read the American Civil War novels, Gods and Generals, and The Killer Angels? I thought these books also were some of the best ive ever read.
    "Its not about dieing for your country, It's about making the enemy die for theirs".

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    MaximiIian's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    definently "Glory of the Empire" by alex gondzur.
    excellent H.R.E alternate history. good battle action scenes too.

  8. #8

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    thanks for the replies, i may look up some of these novels. There any other Hemingway fans out there?

  9. #9
    MaximiIian's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    hemingway?
    bagh...
    nah.

    you should read my "glory of the empire" story when it hits shelves...whenever thats gonna be.
    p.s) im alex G.

  10. #10
    wilpuri's Avatar It Gets Worse.
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    I haven't read too many war novels, but I must say that the best one I have read is 'Unknown Soldier' By Väinö Linna. Perhaps it is because I find it easy to relate to the characters or because the setting is more interesting for me.
    The common culture of a tribe is a sign of its inner cohesion. But tribes are vanishing from the modern world, as are all forms of traditional society. Customs, practices, festivals, rituals and beliefs have acquired a flut and half-hearted quality which reflects our nomadic and rootless existence, predicated as we are on the global air-waves.

    ROGER SCRUTON, Modern Culture

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    Romanos's Avatar Hey
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    The one I'm reading now is very interesting Dreadnought the name of the author is Robert K. Massie the book talks about Victoria familly then about the comming of Worl War One and how Britain and Germany race to see who can build the best War Ship
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  12. #12

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    All quiet on the Western Front. Don't know if that's considered a novel.

  13. #13

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    Originally posted by Damage_Inc@Apr 19 2005, 06:49 PM
    All quiet on the Western Front. Don't know if that's considered a novel.
    definately alongside A Farewell as the greatest ww1 literature. Whats this "Glory of the Empire" book all about hapsburg? and whats wrong with papa hemingway? People give him a hard time but he did almost single handedly define modern minimalist prose and is up there with faulkner and anderson as one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century. :rolleyes

  14. #14
    Ardeur's Avatar Chattering in Chinese
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    Although it is fictional, I thought Shogun was a very engaging war novel. It touched on all the bases of tragedy, strategy, and strife that go hand-in-hand with war.

  15. #15

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    Strange Meeting by Susan Hill. More considered and anti-war novel, but nonetheless a fantastic piece of work IMO. I must say I was less impressed with all quiet on the Western Front. Don't know why really, but it for me it just didn't have the magic most readers claimed it had...

  16. #16
    Legio XX Valeria Victrix's Avatar Great Scott!
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    Originally posted by Damage_Inc@Apr 19 2005, 08:49 PM
    All quiet on the Western Front. Don't know if that's considered a novel.
    That's a classic. One of my favorites.

    Another one is Fields of Fire, a novel about the Vietnam War. Very good stuff. I wish I could remember who wrote it.... :><


    "For what is the life of a man, if it is not interwoven with the life of former generations by a sense of history?" - Cicero

  17. #17

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    I enjoyed Xenophon&#39;s Anabis: The ten thousand most.

  18. #18

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    Originally posted by Hapsburg@Apr 19 2005, 01:36 PM
    definently "Glory of the Empire" by alex gondzur.
    excellent H.R.E alternate history. good battle action scenes too.
    Just how &#39;alternate&#39; is it? Does it give a pretty good description of the HRE?

    I have to say, Gates of Fire is one of the best novels of any type I&#39;ve ever read. Any of Steven Pressfield&#39;s books are the best. Also Forgotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer.

    "Our country won't go on forever, if we stay as soft as we are now. There won't be any America - because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race." LtGen Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller USMC

  19. #19

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    Caesar&#39;s own de Bellum Gallico for classical texts.
    Deus lo Volt&#33; For medieval fiction, THE definitive story of the crusades.
    The Five Fingers for Nam era war novels.
    Gates of Fire and Eagle in the Snow for classical war.
    War of the Rats for WWII.
    All of Cornwell&#39;s books, though the Sharpe series getting rather tired :happy
    "The way to a man's heart is through his ribs."

  20. #20

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    Originally posted by Legio XX Valeria Victrix@May 17 2005, 09:22 AM
    That&#39;s a classic. One of my favorites.

    Another one is Fields of Fire, a novel about the Vietnam War. Very good stuff. I wish I could remember who wrote it.... :><
    If you liked All Quite, then have you tried &#39;Generals Die in Bed&#39;? Very well written, quite graphic, from the allied pov.
    Oops, is this an example of a &#39;double&#39; post? :huh
    "The way to a man's heart is through his ribs."

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